In Texas and beyond, hot spots for vaccine refusers alarm officials
An outbreak of measles among unimmunized members of a Texas megachurch is fueling new health worries about pockets of vaccine-wary parents -- just as more than 50 million public school kids head back to class across the nation.
More possible measles cases are being reviewed in Tarrant County, Texas, where at least 21 people have been sickened this month at the Eagle Mountain International Church, whose ministers have been critical of vaccination. Local officials say several more cases of infections with fever and rash have been reported, but not confirmed.
“It’s concerning. It’s something we jump on,” said Russell Jones, a Texas state epidemiologist who’s been tracking the situation. “It could get into the schools.”
Public health officials say that the northeast Texas outbreak is just the latest in a small but growing number of places -- think San Diego, Calif., Boone and Hamilton counties, Ind., and, most recently, Brooklyn, N.Y. -- where vaccine resistance has sickened children and put the wider community at risk for potentially deadly infectious diseases.
http://www.nbcnews.com/health/texas-megachurch-newest-hot-spot-vaccine-rejection-8C11044898
= new reply since forum marked as read
